This show has big shoes to wear after the wild success of the 2013 Vikings series. It very much is the junior brother to that series, as it turns out.
The entire first season here is built on revenge. Revenge for the brutalizing of a clan of Greenlanders, the slaughter of the Vikings settlers of England by the crown, or clan against clan.
But where it gets interesting for me is to watch the tension of faith against faith, within the Viking peoples themselves. Vikings who follow the "old ways" of Odin, and the promise of Valhalla, versus the Vikings who have converted to the foreign faith of the English and Franks. This is what this story really wants to tell. But it doesn't answer why very concisely. Why would Vikings convert to some foreign lands' belief system, and then return to slaughter their own peoples to enforce conversion? Is it the trappings of wealth & power that enamores them, somehow? The belief systems are completely different, silly in their own ways. But why does the new one win out?
The pacing is a bit choppy as it jumps from region to region and back. Felt like they were punching check boxes to get through a list. Relationship development seems rushed, even with the requisite sex scenes sprinkled in. This series tones down the bloody gore factor from the original, but that decision turns some battle scenes comical, with everyone dying instantly from a single slash of a sword or arrow.
I'm ready to see S2 if it gets picked up.
The entire first season here is built on revenge. Revenge for the brutalizing of a clan of Greenlanders, the slaughter of the Vikings settlers of England by the crown, or clan against clan.
But where it gets interesting for me is to watch the tension of faith against faith, within the Viking peoples themselves. Vikings who follow the "old ways" of Odin, and the promise of Valhalla, versus the Vikings who have converted to the foreign faith of the English and Franks. This is what this story really wants to tell. But it doesn't answer why very concisely. Why would Vikings convert to some foreign lands' belief system, and then return to slaughter their own peoples to enforce conversion? Is it the trappings of wealth & power that enamores them, somehow? The belief systems are completely different, silly in their own ways. But why does the new one win out?
The pacing is a bit choppy as it jumps from region to region and back. Felt like they were punching check boxes to get through a list. Relationship development seems rushed, even with the requisite sex scenes sprinkled in. This series tones down the bloody gore factor from the original, but that decision turns some battle scenes comical, with everyone dying instantly from a single slash of a sword or arrow.
I'm ready to see S2 if it gets picked up.